Standard Calibration and On-Line Estimation of Cell-Specific Growth and Protein Synthesis Rates in Chi.Bio Mini-Bioreactors

Low-cost mini-bioreactor platforms are becoming increasingly important in synthetic biology and biotechnology for the characterization of genetic constructs and their initial scaling-up to large-scale cultures. Key process variables are the specific growth rate of cells and the synthesis rate of rep...

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Main Authors: Harold José Díaz-Iza, Andrés Arboleda-García, Yadira Boada, Alejandro Vignoni, Jesús Picó
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-07-01
Series:Applied Sciences
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/13/7442
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author Harold José Díaz-Iza
Andrés Arboleda-García
Yadira Boada
Alejandro Vignoni
Jesús Picó
author_facet Harold José Díaz-Iza
Andrés Arboleda-García
Yadira Boada
Alejandro Vignoni
Jesús Picó
author_sort Harold José Díaz-Iza
collection DOAJ
description Low-cost mini-bioreactor platforms are becoming increasingly important in synthetic biology and biotechnology for the characterization of genetic constructs and their initial scaling-up to large-scale cultures. Key process variables are the specific growth rate of cells and the synthesis rate of reporter proteins associated with transcriptional units of interest. These variables are of paramount importance for the characterization of gene synthetic circuits. In addition, their on-line estimation can be used for real-time monitoring of cells’ metabolic state and gene circuit dynamic performance, thus allowing for on-line decision taking. In this work, we first describe a procedure for the calibration of absorbance and fluorescence measurements, ensuring standardized and comparable units across different experimental setups and measurement devices. Then, we implement an observer-based software sensor that uses the calibrated on-line measurements to simultaneously estimate the specific growth and protein synthesis rates. We implemented the calibration procedure and software sensor in a Chi.Bio mini-bioreactor platform. The experimental results show very good performance and pave the way for the use of mini-bioreactor platforms in the real-time characterization of gene synthetic circuits under dynamically regulated time-varying complex scenarios.
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spelling doaj-art-7534ac8b22a04d758dfac67dd364ba2f2025-08-20T03:28:25ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172025-07-011513744210.3390/app15137442Standard Calibration and On-Line Estimation of Cell-Specific Growth and Protein Synthesis Rates in Chi.Bio Mini-BioreactorsHarold José Díaz-Iza0Andrés Arboleda-García1Yadira Boada2Alejandro Vignoni3Jesús Picó4Synthetic Biology and Biosystems Control Lab, Institut d’Automática e Informática Industrial, Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, SpainSynthetic Biology and Biosystems Control Lab, Institut d’Automática e Informática Industrial, Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, SpainSynthetic Biology and Biosystems Control Lab, Institut d’Automática e Informática Industrial, Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, SpainSynthetic Biology and Biosystems Control Lab, Institut d’Automática e Informática Industrial, Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, SpainSynthetic Biology and Biosystems Control Lab, Institut d’Automática e Informática Industrial, Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, SpainLow-cost mini-bioreactor platforms are becoming increasingly important in synthetic biology and biotechnology for the characterization of genetic constructs and their initial scaling-up to large-scale cultures. Key process variables are the specific growth rate of cells and the synthesis rate of reporter proteins associated with transcriptional units of interest. These variables are of paramount importance for the characterization of gene synthetic circuits. In addition, their on-line estimation can be used for real-time monitoring of cells’ metabolic state and gene circuit dynamic performance, thus allowing for on-line decision taking. In this work, we first describe a procedure for the calibration of absorbance and fluorescence measurements, ensuring standardized and comparable units across different experimental setups and measurement devices. Then, we implement an observer-based software sensor that uses the calibrated on-line measurements to simultaneously estimate the specific growth and protein synthesis rates. We implemented the calibration procedure and software sensor in a Chi.Bio mini-bioreactor platform. The experimental results show very good performance and pave the way for the use of mini-bioreactor platforms in the real-time characterization of gene synthetic circuits under dynamically regulated time-varying complex scenarios.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/13/7442synthetic biologymini-bioreactorsabsorbance and fluorescence calibrationreal-time software sensorsspecific growth rateprotein synthesis rate
spellingShingle Harold José Díaz-Iza
Andrés Arboleda-García
Yadira Boada
Alejandro Vignoni
Jesús Picó
Standard Calibration and On-Line Estimation of Cell-Specific Growth and Protein Synthesis Rates in Chi.Bio Mini-Bioreactors
Applied Sciences
synthetic biology
mini-bioreactors
absorbance and fluorescence calibration
real-time software sensors
specific growth rate
protein synthesis rate
title Standard Calibration and On-Line Estimation of Cell-Specific Growth and Protein Synthesis Rates in Chi.Bio Mini-Bioreactors
title_full Standard Calibration and On-Line Estimation of Cell-Specific Growth and Protein Synthesis Rates in Chi.Bio Mini-Bioreactors
title_fullStr Standard Calibration and On-Line Estimation of Cell-Specific Growth and Protein Synthesis Rates in Chi.Bio Mini-Bioreactors
title_full_unstemmed Standard Calibration and On-Line Estimation of Cell-Specific Growth and Protein Synthesis Rates in Chi.Bio Mini-Bioreactors
title_short Standard Calibration and On-Line Estimation of Cell-Specific Growth and Protein Synthesis Rates in Chi.Bio Mini-Bioreactors
title_sort standard calibration and on line estimation of cell specific growth and protein synthesis rates in chi bio mini bioreactors
topic synthetic biology
mini-bioreactors
absorbance and fluorescence calibration
real-time software sensors
specific growth rate
protein synthesis rate
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/13/7442
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